


to-date list

by indemnis



Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Cute, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Side Wonkyun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 21:40:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18039560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indemnis/pseuds/indemnis
Summary: Hyunwoo is too nervous about his first date with Kihyun, so maybe he writes a list of things to date.





	to-date list

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kwihyeoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwihyeoni/gifts).



> sincere apologies that this is absolute rubbish.
> 
> dedicated to tim @yookiihyun, thank you for being my amazing friend, i love you for being you <3

Hyunwoo is not much of a planner. Scheduler, organiser, making-rules-and-following-them kind of person, he’s not really that.

But he’s nervous. He’s so nervous he has the nervous sweats. By God are those sweats nowhere near delightful.

And when he’s nervous he tries to overcompensate by making sure that he has correct and exact information of the upcoming event, down to the smallest details.

He thinks about what to wear: his favourite Abercrombie & Fitch shirt that has seen better days, but it _is_ his favourite and _does_ flaunt his chest muscles pretty well. And jeans. Not skinnies, just acid-washed ones that hug around his thighs _just right_.

He thinks about what fragrance to wear: probably that musky and slightly overwhelming one that Minhyuk bought him a while ago but he never had a reason to use.

He thinks about his opening line: “you look really cute today”. Does he know how cute he’ll look? No. But he always looks cute, so moot point.

See, Hyunwoo is not always a ball of nerves. He’s mostly chill, laidback, takes jabs and pokes with good-natured humour, but there’s something that displaces him from his normal calm disposition.

He’s unsure why. He thinks it might be because of how excited he is about this date.

But he really, _really_ likes Kihyun. (Has he already said ‘really’ already? He really does.)

It’s not that big of a deal — Kihyun is a man with a very magnetic presence, and Hyunwoo had trouble not staring when they first met.

He remembers the first time he met him. It was a night where the air was still and Hyunwoo was feeling a little snacky. (He always feels snacky after 11PM.)

Hoseok is asleep on his couch, his mouth slightly open as always, light snores leaving him. Hyunwoo chuckles a little at his inelegant best friend and decides against taking a picture of him as blackmail. Or to send it to Hoseok’s boyfriend. Changkyun probably already has a folder of him sleeping with his mouth half open anyway.

Tiptoeing his way away from the couch, Hyunwoo stretches and picks up his wallet and phone from the table, slipping them into his track pants pockets easily. He takes one last look at Hoseok before closing the door behind him, a beep signifying the lock.

The walk to the nearest convenience store is short, but Hyunwoo hates that it feels so suffocating without a single breeze, so he hurries.

A loud piercing screech sounds as he walks into the store — the tinny wail of the door entrance chime indicating the presence of a newcomer — and the figure hunched over the counter jumps. They exchange looks, and he bows immediately.

The store employee cannot be any older than him. He has a mop of brown hair and a pair of silver-framed glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. He looks a little surprised, even though it _is_ a place that runs 24 hours, and a customer should be anything but unpredictable.

Hyunwoo briefly notes how handsome he is, and how clear his skin looks under the glaring bulbs. His lips are thin and pink and Hyunwoo can’t help but to let his gaze linger.

“Welcome.”

Hyunwoo bows back. “Hello.”

Hyunwoo makes a beeline for the bread and picks out one with red bean in it. He picks up another with custard, too. And then another that looks like a doughnut.

He picks up a triangle _kimbap_ as well, but skips the _ramyeon_ — Hoseok has a stash in his apartment despite his valiant attempts to ‘stay healthy’.

He then heads to the drinks and scans the selection, frowning a little at the absence of his favourite drink. He blinks, considers if it’s worth interacting with another human being at 2:43AM for some coffee milk.

Ah, heck. He’s walked all the way, might as well.

“Hi, sorry,” Hyunwoo cranes his neck, struggling to catch the attention of the employee. As if burnt by fire, the cashier-slash-only-employee flinches and makes his way to where Hyunwoo is before the display of drinks. He stands a little too close. Hyunwoo can smell his cologne — spicy, but not overwhelming. For a moment, Hyunwoo tries to discern if that is a note of sandalwood in his scent, only to realise that he’s a creep, and the cashier is still looking at him curiously.

“Hi, I was just wondering if you have any coffee milk?”

He blinks back at him, half-confused, before it settles. “Oh. Oh! Coffee milk? Uh. I think so. I’ll pop into the back to take a look?” He seems so flustered, his lips forming a small pout as he tries his hardest to remember if he’s seen the coffee milk anywhere.

“It won’t be chilled if it’s in the back, will it?”

He looks just as confused as before. “I… don’t think so?”

Hyunwoo guffaws, and the cashier follows suit, albeit awkwardly, a kind that sounds almost disjointed.

“Sorry, I’m new here.” He rubs at the back of his neck with his right hand. He looks so embarrassed, Hyunwoo can’t help but find it endearing.

“It’s okay,” he assures, and sensing the man’s skepticism, Hyunwoo laughs. “No, really, it’s okay. I can do without coffee milk for one day.”

The cashier seems to let out a very huge breath he was holding in, perhaps glad that Hyunwoo isn’t one of those cranky insomniacs that have a stick up their butt at ass o’clock.

“Next time. Next time you’re here, I’ll have the coffee milk for you.”

He doesn’t know why the promise of something so minute and even silly makes his heart skip. Maybe it’s less so the possibility of finally getting his hands on coffee milk as much as it is a promise of seeing him again.

Foolish, considering he’s just a man with dark brown hair who wears a very intriguing and attractive scent, and has little dents near his eyes when he smiles.

He also has pearly white teeth that are straight and neat and he makes Hyunwoo’s heart settle in what can only be ease.

Hyunwoo is a fool.

*****

The next time he steps into the store, the bell sounding again, Hyunwoo doesn’t know why he’s here holding out that much hope.

He might not even be working today, though he clearly hadn’t considered that before coming in.

His heart drops when he doesn’t see the familiar tuft of brown hair by the counter and his feet trudges along (just a little) to the corner where the cup noodles are.

He stops short when there is a box lying just in front of his toes, and there it is, brown hair, angular shoulders, man crouched on the ground and arranging a row of _Shin ramyeon_ neatly on one of the lower racks.

“Good evening,” he says in the softest voice so as to not startle the employee, but he still visibly starts, head whipping back immediately.

Hyunwoo hopes he’s not imagining things when he sees the man’s face light up at the sight of Hyunwoo. God, he hopes he still remembers who Hyunwoo is.

“Oh hey, Coffee Milk!” Suddenly aware that it might be a little rude, he blows a raspberry at himself and shakes his head, flustered. “Sorry, I didn’t manage to get your name the last time, and —”

“Our meetings seem to be filled with apologies,” Hyunwoo jokes. “It’s okay, my skin tone is pretty similar to coffee milk anyway.”

He stares at him wordlessly, stoic, at a loss at what to reply with, and Hyunwoo slaps himself at the back of his skull. Humour is really not his strong suit. The man laughs.

“Sorry. Anyway, it’s Hyunwoo.”

He breaks into a smile that Hyunwoo can’t help but mirror. “Kihyun.”

*****

Kihyun and him bond over coffee milk, Hyunwoo insisting on buying him one. It’s 3:54AM and Kihyun doesn’t have any customers, so he doesn’t reject the offer. They’re sitting by the seats near the microwaves, Hyunwoo already halfway done with his drink.

“Are you sure it’s fine for you to sit here with me?”

Kihyun nods. “My uncle owns the store. I’m just here to help out because no one wants to work the graveyard shift.”

Hyunwoo hums his agreement. “So why’d you take it?”

He shrugs. “Because I’m a miserably broke university student who needs to make ends meet?”

The taller man chuckles. “Touché.” After a small pause, “what do you study?”

Kihyun makes a face. “Marketing. It’s the major for all the kids who have no lofty aspirations.” Hyunwoo makes a movement to rebuke, but Kihyun puts his index finger up. “Don’t sugarcoat it, I know it to be true.”

The redhead smiles. “Well, I don’t know what to say. I major in Economics and Maths, and I can’t say it’s the course to be for aspiring… whatevers.” He sits up straight. “Never heard a seven year-old tell me they want to grow up to be an economist. Or a mathematician.”

“Maybe you just haven’t met the right seven year-olds.” Kihyun grins, and Hyunwoo can’t help but find him lovely. He’s a little playful, teasing even, but Hyunwoo can tell that he has zero malice in his words.

“You know,” Kihyun begins, picking up the oddly-shaped bottle and staring intently at the label, “I never knew their coffee milk was good, too.”

Hyunwoo’s eyes are twinkling when he speaks. “Must have been the world-famous banana milk that stole its thunder.”

He thinks he must have seen wrongly, because Kihyun winks? “Well, what can I say, great marketing?”

Hyunwoo laughs. “I’ll take your word for it, Mr Marketing.”

“A reasonable and acceptable hero name. I’ll take it.”

They laugh it off as Kihyun watches Hyunwoo snarf down his second roll of _kimbap_ , just content with looking at him eat as he occasionally goes on his phone.

That night (morning?) they finally part when Hyunwoo has gone through his third coffee milk, Kihyun on his second, and there is a shrilling sound coming from Kihyun’s phone that makes the both of them jump.

“Oh shit. That’s the alarm for ‘customers will come in soon so stop dozing off, sleepyhead’. Crap,” he looks down at this phone screen, “I haven’t even sorted out the inventory yet.” Groaning outwardly, Kihyun’s face scrunches up in frustration. Hyunwoo can’t help but feel bad.

“I’m sorry if I distracted you from your work,” he manages after Kihyun has calculated the remaining time on his shift and the list of things he has to complete and how much time he has to allocate for each of them.

“No, no, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it, please.” With a quirk of his lips, “besides, what can my uncle do? Fire me?” He snorts. “My mum will have his head.”

Hyunwoo takes a dramatic step backwards and morphs his expression into what he thinks is horror. “You didn’t tell me you were literally the Devil.”

Kihyun starts cackling maniacally, which forces a laugh from Hyunwoo as he struggles to stay in role. “Rule number one of being a devil is that no one is allowed to know. Now that you know my secret, I’m going to have to kill you.” He takes a huge step forward and he’s all up in Hyunwoo’s personal space.

The proximity between their noses is almost nonexistent. Hyunwoo gulps, his acting facade all but faded.

Seeming to have noticed the sudden change in atmosphere, Kihyun suddenly realises just how close they are. He jerks backwards, keeping a safe distance. Before he says anything, Hyunwoo gets back into character if only to defuse the situation.

“This isn’t Fight Club, Kihyun.”

The shorter man narrows his eyes. “It will soon be if you dare leak my secret to anyone.”

“I’d like to see you try winning me in a fist fight, Mr Marketing.”

And that successfully punctures whatever little roleplay they had as Kihyun’s face crumples up, his smile all crooked as he presses his lips together.

“You look constipated.”

Hyunwoo throws his head back in deafening laughter when Kihyun’s crumpled face transforms into annoyance immediately, glaring at Hyunwoo with all of his might.

But it ends with laughter and with Hyunwoo shooing Kihyun back to work, urging him to “at least look like you’re working if you’re taking his money”, which was enough motivation for Kihyun to return to sorting out the cup noodles.

The door entrance chime sounds. The customers on their way to work have begun to flow in, and Hyunwoo excuses himself with a small wave and an unspoken promise to be back.

*****

There was a previous point made about Hyunwoo being foolish, and Hyunwoo only truly understands the repercussions of his foolery when he realises that he had neither asked for Kihyun’s number, nor his working days.

Hoseok is growingly suspicious of his constant hovering around his apartment, though not so much his constant requests to head into the nearby convenience store. (Hoseok knows Hyunwoo’s stomach bears resemblance to a bottomless pit.)

Four tries, with the prospect of each try becoming more and more bleak, Hyunwoo is _this_ close to giving up. Only he can’t get Kihyun out of his head, the man’s laughter and his dimples tucked just beneath his eyes written into his mind. And for what? Hyunwoo would love to know.

It’s his fifth (and hopefully his final) try, the chime of the bell by the door only mocking him in a singsong tune. This time he doesn’t have to search.

“Welc — oh, Hyunwoo!”

He lifts his head to find himself eye-to-eye with the man he’s been aching to meet for weeks, and in his surprise he almost trips over his own feet.

“Woah, woah, look out there.” His eyes are sparkling when he smiles, his arms outstretched to catch him. “Isn’t someone excited to see me.”

The relief at seeing the brown-haired man removes any possible brain-to-mouth filter Hyunwoo might have had. “You have no idea,” he replies on what sounds like a sigh, and Kihyun is smiling so wide his face might split apart.

“Aw, someone really missed me, huh?” Kihyun teases, and Hyunwoo’s ears are a bright pink. He guffaws. The dimples beneath his eyes surface again, and Hyunwoo’s chest tightens. It’s 11:47PM; there is a middle-aged man browsing in the drinks section, but Kihyun doesn’t seem to care much for his presence.

“Haven’t seen you around lately,” he comments off-handedly, and Hyunwoo is jerked back to reality, this time hopefully equipped with a smarter plan to meet the man again.

“I seem to keep missing you.”

Kihyun blinks a few times, and Hyunwoo realises what that sounded like. “That’s not what I — oh God.”

The roar of laughter makes him blush again. “No, it’s okay, whichever one you meant.” It dies down when Kihyun wipes at the corners of his eyes, and as he sets his eyes on Hyunwoo, he bursts into another round of laughter. The taller man scowls and gestures to leave, but Kihyun grabs onto his arm from across the counter and pleads between his laughing.

“Sorry, no, no, it’s just — I’ll stop laughing, sorry.” He finally manages to settle down, and Hyunwoo is waiting patiently for him to say something, even though it’s not really his turn in the conversation.

“It’s cute though; didn’t you say your friend’s place was near here?”

He sniffs. “Yeah.” Promptly and conveniently ignores the fact that Kihyun just said that it was _cute_.

Kihyun hikes up a brow. “So you travel specially to his place just to come to his nearby convenience store just to see me?”

Maybe his cheeks are reddening, he can’t tell. “Well, I mean, he _is_ my friend. We do hang out often.”

Rolling his eyes, Kihyun doesn’t push down the grin that’s twitching at his lips. “Way to downplay the excitement. Just wanted to feel important for a moment there, geez.”

It’s Hyunwoo’s turn to grin. He’s been told he’s not good with reading the atmosphere, but if this isn’t flirting, he’d be better off blind. The realisation that Kihyun is as interested in him as he is in him alleviates his concern regarding the number of times Kihyun has appeared in his daydreams.

He spaces out for another moment as Kihyun just reads his expression with a hint of a smile on his lips before Hyunwoo comes back to himself.

“Hmm? You were saying?”

Kihyun shakes his head, biting down on his lower lip so he doesn’t break into the largest grin. “Didn’t say anything.”

They stay like this for a while, Hyunwoo leaned against the cashier counter, sharing meaningless anecdotes from his life while Kihyun reacts accordingly, adds his two cents where it’s worth (and sometimes where it’s not).

The stranger from the drinks section walks out to pay, eyeing the two men with mild interest, but he doesn’t say anything if he thought it was odd that Hyunwoo was lingering around the cashier without being in an employee outfit.

The store is empty save for the both of them again, and Hyunwoo suddenly finds it hard to speak, the tempo that they created just seconds ago vanished.

Kihyun seems to have noticed it too, and rubbing at the back of his neck, he laughs a little breathily. Be confident, be confident, Hyunwoo tells himself, gathering all his courage to hopefully ask Kihyun for something more.

Like a phone number. Maybe they could start texting, or something. Or exchange memes? Maybe he’ll send his snapshots of his daily life and request for every two cents he has to offer.

Maybe they’ll grow into something more.

Damn, Hyunwoo is getting ahead of himself. He wonders how best he should broach the topic of ‘maybe we should exchange numbers’, when Kihyun drags over a stool from where the microwave ovens stand and plops himself onto it.

“Uh, so.”

Hyunwoo clears his throat. “Yeah.”

“So there’s a festival that’s happening in my campus next week. Did you maybe want to come with?” Kihyun picks up what appears to be an open bag of chips and munches on his food noisily, offering some to Hyunwoo.

The tall bulky man is hardly in a position to react. “You — what?”

Kihyun chuckles. “I’m asking if you want to come along to a festival we have at university. I’m from the Photog Club and I’ve been prepping for our booth for a while, so they’re giving me the night off.”

As an afterthought, “it was gonna be you, or I’d have to bring Jooheon, and he’ll leech off me as much as he can, that pesky kid.” He visibly shudders from the thought of having to buy Jooheon food from every booth, and although Kihyun is a poor uni student struggling to make ends meet, he finds difficulty in saying no to Jooheon.

Everyone finds difficulty in that, as it seems.

Hyunwoo doesn’t know who Jooheon is, but he’s guessing he’s younger and maybe a bit of a charmer. He also doesn’t know exactly _what_ motivates him to say his next words. “So like a date?”

Kihyun seems to be the opposite of flustered, and he crunches on his chips again. His shoulders move up and down and he cocks his head to the side. “Yeah, I guess, something like that. Or if it’s making you uncomfortable, then something along the lines of ‘the guy from the convenience store near my friend’s house asking me to tag along to a school festival so that he doesn’t have to bring his dongsaeng’ works just as fine.”

Hyunwoo snorts. “Catchy.”

Kihyun winks (Hyunwoo thinks he does?) and slouches closer to the counter. “What do you say?”

Every cell in Hyunwoo is begging him to say yes, but he doesn’t want to appear too desperate. The redness in his ears is not helping, but Hyunwoo attempts some degree of suaveness.

So instead of “yeah sure, why not” and “that sounds like a good idea”, what Hyunwoo really says is “yeah sure not a good idea”. Kihyun stops chewing on his food immediately, and before Hyunwoo can take it back, he explodes into laughter, giggles and loud barks taking turns to fall out from his lips.

“I meant ‘why not, that sounds like a good idea’,” Hyunwoo replies, shy now, the burning in his ears spreading to his neck and he wants nothing than to bury his face into a deep pit of nothingness. One job, Son Hyunwoo, one job.

Kihyun recovers from his incessant guffawing and steadies himself against the counter. “That was hilarious.”

Hyunwoo forces a bitter grin. “Glad to be your source of entertainment.”

Kihyun laughs again, and Hyunwoo is focussed only on the way there are small dimples forming at the tip of his cheeks. “Aw c’mon, I was just joking.”

Hyunwoo shrugs. Where he finds the courage to say his next words, he doesn’t know, but there are stars in Kihyun’s eyes, and it’s now or never. “I’ll forgive you if you let me call it a date.”

The store employee’s smile is wide, and Hyunwoo doesn’t know how to not reflect that dazzling grin he’s wearing. “Deal.”

*****

That brings them to the current state of things, where Hyunwoo has his clothes laid out on his bed (nothing fancy about shirt and jeans, but he’s trying to play it casual) (Minhyuk’s exact words were: “you’re not really wearing a shirt to a school festival are you? I thought this was casual”.)

So against his decision of turning up in a shirt and wanting to retain some level of anything that doesn’t reek of desperation, Hyunwoo decides on his favourite t-shirt.

He’s sorted out most of the preparation, but something still feels amiss. As if he should be compulsively planning something. He wants things to go perfectly, doesn’t want to miss a single thing.

He feels electricity at the tips of his fingers and toes and he wants to do something, anything, because there are little sparks buzzing through him and he’s nervous.

So instead of hyping himself up by giving himself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror like any character would in The Sims, he instead sits by his desk and fishes out a piece of scrap paper from a random drawer.

He chews on the back of his pen. In block letters, Hyunwoo manages to write the words ‘Things to Do’.

Deciding that it’s a little generic, he strikes out the words and tries again. ‘For Date with Kihyun’. He’s going to see him in four hours. Four hours, and the idea of being on a date with the man is still impossible to him.

His phone buzzes, so Hyunwoo looks at it immediately, because he and Kihyun have exchanged numbers and have somehow begun to send each other a few hundred texts a day narrating the events of their lives, or quality memes.

He sighs when he sees the notification, however.

Hoseok  
what are you doing

Hyunwoo  
writing a to-do list

Hoseok  
uh oh   
that’s panic level hyunwoo   
are you sure youre ok

Hyunwoo  
don’t be dramatic

Hoseok  
sure, but organising hyunwoo is a level 5 emergency   
you only ever do anything productive when youre panicking

Hyunwoo  
am i getting paid for this unsolicited attack?

Hoseok  
ok sorry enough teasing   
but youre ok?

Hyunwoo  
it’s just a date hoseok   
i’ve been on dates before

Hoseok  
yeah ok but do normal people write to-do lists for ‘just a date’s?

Hyunwoo  
i’m abnormal then   
bite me

Hoseok  
appreciate the offer   
but no thanks   
anything i can do to help?

Hyunwoo  
what do i do during the date hoseok   
like what do i say

Hoseok  
i thought youve been on dates before?

Hyunwoo  
i’m gonna stop talking to u now   
bye

Hoseok  
ok sorry sorry   
maybe just start off by telling him he looks nice?

Hyunwoo  
jesus i know how to function i’m not asocial   
i meant   
how do i make it clear that i’m interested /interested/

Hoseok  
ok mr speedy gonzales   
maybe hold ur horses   
and don’t think about that stuff for a bit   
you really like him huh?   
who would’ve thought my crib was the incubator for a budding romance

Hyunwoo  
i would like to cancel my subscription of this friendship thank you

Hoseok  
how dare you   
you’re stuck with me for life you fiend   
but fr maybe just think about what you wanna do this date   
maybe marriage is a little far down the road

Hyunwoo  
seriously fuck u hoseok

Hoseok  
:)   
i meant maybe like   
aspire to hold his hand or smth   
baby steps my bro   
everything in life needs a progression

Hyunwoo  
can’t believe i’m taking advice from a guy who was so scared to confess to that cute barista in the cafe and just kept stalking him every day   
until the barista got tired of the dumb flirting and wrote his number on his coffee cup

Hoseok  
you make a great point   
but who’s the one with a cute barista boyfriend   
thats right hyunwoo i win   
i always do

Hyunwoo  
wish there was a real life mute button for you and you only

The phone continues to rattle at the alert of a new message, but Hyunwoo ignores it for the sake of his own sanity. The buzzing stops after a while, and Hyunwoo sighs.

Back to the drawing board, where he’s struggling to come up with a list to help cope with the restlessness. ‘ _For Date with Kihyun_ ’.

He draws two, then three lines under the header and considers his options. He wants them in chronological order, wants things to go perfectly. Maybe Hoseok is not that useless, after all.

     1.  Say hi (be polite, nice, but not too overwhelming)

That’s okay, right? He should probably compliment on his outfit or something as well.

     2.  Say something nice (outfit, hair, his face?)

Maybe ‘his face’ isn’t a good call, but Hyunwoo doesn’t strike it out.

And then the rest is pretty basic, nothing chronological to note, laugh at his jokes, all the in-betweens. Make a joke about their first encounter, ask him about his hobbies. He considers writing that all down, but Hyunwoo is nervous, he’s not a mess. He should be able to handle a normal flow of conversation without having to write them down in steps. (He pulls out another empty piece of paper and heads it with ‘Conversation Topics’ anyway.)

So, what else? Hyunwoo starts to think of how he wants the date to end. His ears are warm when he thinks about a kiss. Nothing deep or serious. Maybe just a peck on the cheek.

He scribbles ‘cheek peck’ somewhere near the bottom of the list, unsure what number to assign it.

And then it becomes a little like a multi-level mini game, where Hyunwoo makes up small goals he wants to achieve by the end of the night.

     3.  Make him laugh at least once  
     4.  Hold his hand  
     5.  Tell him he’s beautiful

Is that over the top? Kihyun is beautiful and Hyunwoo would spend all eternity telling him that if only he’d let him. Beautiful with his thin cherry lips, his mild spicy fragrance, his curious almond eyes.

     6.  Share a dessert with him  
     7.  Send him home  
     8.  Cheek peck (>_<)

(The rest of the date preparation is Hyunwoo rolling around on his bed, crinkling his jeans and shirt as he thinks about how excited he is to meet Kihyun. On a date. More rolling commences, but he can’t help himself.)

*****

The watch weighs heavy on his wrist. That’s what he tells himself as he keeps adjusting it, eyes travelling to the watch face, staring as the second hand ticks by. He’s early, that much he knows, but his feet brought him here on their own accord, so it’s not his fault he’s half an hour early.

Hyunwoo considers if he should leave his position to walk around so that when he comes back he’ll only be 20 minutes early instead of 30, which he supposes would help him not look too eager.

There is a shuffle of feet and Hyunwoo looks at the time again.

“Oh, I thought I was early!” The voice rings in his ears, then his head, and when he lifts his head up, Kihyun is standing only metres away from him. Kihyun without the blue vest over his top, Kihyun with his bangs swept up and his chapped lips a muted pink.

His presence never fails to remind Hyunwoo of how smitten he is with the convenience store employee, and Hyunwoo doesn’t mind the reminder.

“You _are_ early,” Hyunwoo notes, and Kihyun smiles, his eyes curving into crescent moons. “And you’re earlier.”

“This isn’t a competition, Kihyun.”

They laugh, and Kihyun is standing dangerously close to him. _It’s a date, Hyunwoo, get a grip._

He suddenly feels uneasy in his own skin, like something is off even though he’s wearing his most-worn shirt, and a pair of jeans that hug his thighs without chafing, and he realises that the only difference is his fragrance.

He picks up the collar of his shirt and sniffs at it, and it’s only then he realises that maybe he’s gone a little far with the cologne.

Kihyun laughs at Hyunwoo sniffing at his shirt. He’s self-conscious. “Sorry, is it too much? I don’t normally wear this scent, it’s just —”

Kihyun shakes his head and then also his hands. “No, no, it’s okay. It’s different.” A short beat later, “I like it.”

And Hyunwoo can no longer help the twitching at the ends of his lips curving into a grin. He slides back in easily, into himself, his outfit, next to Kihyun.

The smaller man moves the eco bag he had been carrying onto his other shoulder and stuffs his hands deep into his pocket. “Have you had dinner?”

Hyunwoo shakes his head, and at the tip of his fingers he feels his crumpled list of things to do on this date. His mind draws a blank, all those 1, 2, 3 points he’d written all but wiped from his memory, and he doesn’t know what he should do.

Something along the lines of complimenting his looks? Say something nice about his hair? Laugh at something?

Hyunwoo struggles to retrieve any information he’d jotted down painstakingly on the piece of paper. All chronology and sequence is thrown away haphazardly as his mind constantly reverberates with the one final numbered point echoing at the back.

_Cheek peck_.

He reddens, ears blazing a flaming scarlet, and he can’t stop thinking about it. All previous claims about him being functional and not being asocial feel like a distant past, and all he can remember is that the goal of the night is to have his cheek pecked.

Well that’s _stupid_ , considering he can barely even engage in a conversation about food, which is the one thing he’s passionate about.

It’s chronological, he reminds himself, the night _ends_ there, not _begins_ , and so he tries to focus on the topic at hand. It was a mistake to have drafted that list. If this date doesn’t finish with a cheek peck, he would be disappointed. He would have built up all his expectations only for it them to be destroyed, and he has no one else to blame but himself.

“Hey. You okay? You’re really red in the face.” Kihyun stops in his footsteps, and like a wave tugged along by the moon, Hyunwoo crashes onto the shore and stops too.

“Oh? Oh, yeah, I’m good. Fine. Tip-top, really.” His voice breaks on the last syllable, and Kihyun does his best to not laugh. Poor Hyunwoo already looks flustered enough as it is.

“Are you sure?”

He doesn’t trust his voice to not betray him a second time round, so the taller man opts to nod, and the entirety of Kihyun’s face grows into a smile. A welt of warmth start small in Hyunwoo’s chest, but it quickly snowballs, and Hyunwoo finds himself barely able to hold himself together.

(Why does he want to run his fingers through his hair for no particular reason?)

He wills for time to come to a standstill. In this moment, Kihyun is bright, his smile, his laughter, the glimmer in his eyes. Hyunwoo can’t peel his eyes off him — doesn’t want to. The warmth becomes something more of a flame he can’t quite put out, charring his nerves and burning him from inside out.

The next movements come a little swift, unexpected. Kihyun throws his arm over Hyunwoo’s shoulder, snaking it casually over the nape of his neck, ignoring the fact that Hyunwoo has literal goosebumps.

He never thought Kihyun to be a touchy-feely person — Hyunwoo doesn’t mind, though his brain is a little fried at the proximity, and the spiciness in his scent invades his sense, attacks his nostrils, engulfs him whole. Hyunwoo feels like sinking.

But he doesn’t mind, he says, as his frame goes completely rigid, and he’s somehow holding his breath. Kihyun laughs, the sound echoing and distant. Hyunwoo needs to chill, somehow. Take it easy, play it casual.

(How’s he supposed to do that when he’s on a date with someone who feels like the literal Sun when he smiles?)

“Hey Hyunwoo, I gotta tell you something —”

“Hmm?” Hyunwoo’s eyes are wide with curiosity, still trying to get over himself.

And then he strikes.

With a sweeping motion, Kihyun pulls Hyunwoo down by his shoulder, forcing him to bend down just slightly to match his height, and without a single warning, a single word, Kihyun leans in and presses his lips — those chapped pink ones, the one and only — on Hyunwoo’s left cheek.

It’s quick, soft, almost like a feather’s tickle, but Kihyun makes an effort to produce a smacking sound.

Hyunwoo’s brain is sent into overdrive.

What. The. Hell. Just happened?

The world properly comes to a standstill this time, the way Hyunwoo had hoped it would, his heart pounding relentlessly beneath his ribcage, and Hyunwoo feels like it might jump out of his chest.

He should say something. What something should he say? He can’t think of anything else except for the fact that Kihyun just kissed him on the cheek, and the last item on his to-date list starts swimming around in his mind in caps like hungry piranhas.

CHEEK PECK.

CHEEK PECK.

CHEEK PECK.

He blinks once. Twice. Thrice, for good measure, and he is still in disbelief. Kihyun’s laughter can be heard, but Hyunwoo feels like his head is in a bucket of water, and Kihyun’s voice only sounds like a gargle.

Then he breathes. Once, twice, thrice, and then multiple times, and when he finally comes back out of the water and breathes in all the oxygen he needs to keep his head cool, he turns and stares at Kihyun.

If it were up to Kihyun to describe Hyunwoo in this moment, he would describe him as ‘the human embodiment of the question mark’.

“What did you just do?” Hyunwoo’s voice is weak, frail, like he’s about to lose it (and don’t bet your pennies, he just might), and Kihyun merely laughs. It feels mocking, like Hyunwoo should feel bad about this, but he’s mostly just wanting to recover from the shock and trying to patch up the discrepancies between his brain’s recognition and reality.

“I believe I just kissed you. Think you saw that coming, though.”

_Did_ Hyunwoo see that coming? Maybe he did, for like six hours down the road, but he would never in his imagination think that: 1. That was going to be the first thing they’d do on their first date, and 2. That it would be up to Kihyun to initiate the (giggle) cheek peck.

After all, it had been Hyunwoo’s personal to-date list and his bias for the romantics that led him to his lofty expectations.

“You. Y-you. I can’t… You —”

He doesn’t seem the least bit bothered, the well-natured smile still on his face, and Hyunwoo wonders if his heart is hammering as loudly as his. He sure doesn’t look the part, all calm and collected after having kissed him on the cheek.

A single brow is raised. “Yes? What about me?”

Hyunwoo makes frantic hand gestures, still struggling to make out the words to properly express his thoughts, and Kihyun guffaws. Hyunwoo locks the sound into the deepest parts of his brain and swears to never let it escape.

“This wasn’t the plan!” Hyunwoo wails (he’s allowed to, he likes Kihyun _so much_ ) as Kihyun laughs some more. “Oh? There was a plan? Do tell.”

He shakes his head, unwilling to share more of his embarrassed neurotic self, and Kihyun chuckles. “Well. It doesn’t matter; did you like it?”

He knows he’s talking about the kiss. He knows, but how does he say it like that, with a grin on his face, like he isn’t losing his marbles and is this close to break into a cheesy confession that no one is ready for?

Hyunwoo inhales. “It was okay, I guess.”

The shorter man throws his head back as his laughter deafens passers-by within a two-metre radius, and Hyunwoo can’t help but laugh, too. Mostly exasperation at himself for being a mess, but also because Kihyun seems to be having so much fun.

“Just okay?”

“Mmm,” Hyunwoo rubs at his chin, “maybe a B+?”

“That’s better than an _okay_.”

“Have some standards, Yoo Kihyun.”

He laughs again, and Hyunwoo finds it endearing at the fact that Kihyun takes his words so easily, that he accepts them and entertains his bants without a single falter.  

“Well, if you’re done assessing my cheek kiss, shall we head to the actual festival?” His tone is playful, mirth lacing his every syllable, and Hyunwoo punches him lightly on his arm.

Kihyun fakes an injury, rubbing at the spot repeatedly with a whine as he throws Hyunwoo scandalised looks. They laugh, because they’re fools, and because Hyunwoo thinks this is the happiest he’s ever been.

Kihyun’s company is a warm comforting blanket that puts him together and fends off any bitter cold, and Hyunwoo revels in it, lets it bury him, until he becomes a dot in the sea of cosiness that is Kihyun.

They make their way to the various booths on display, the lights shimmering in the darkening evening sky, lanterns and fairy lights abound, resembling stars. Hyunwoo sticks close beside Kihyun, feeling his body heat radiate off him in waves, sees the luminosity reflected in his eyes as he observes his surroundings in wonder.

Ah heck, now that his plans are out of the window, Hyunwoo doesn’t overthink his decisions and lets his instincts take charge.

He doesn’t doubt himself when he picks Kihyun’s hand up naturally, letting their fingers interlace slowly. Kihyun doesn’t say a word, just stares at their held hands while Hyunwoo keeps his gaze to the front, suddenly impassioned by their aimless walking.

There are no questions asked, nothing being said, just Hyunwoo holding Kihyun’s hand, his left cheek still ablazing from the kiss. Students yell from all directions around them, but in this moment, Hyunwoo only exists in the space next to Kihyun and allows the man to anchor him to where they are, in their bubble consisting only of the two of them.

Kihyun’s grip on his hand tightens, and so does Hyunwoo’s chest. Tight, tighter, tightest, until he can’t feel the beating of his own heart, until he can’t hear the pounding in his head, until he can only feel Kihyun’s racing pulse.

And he wants to cherish this instant (maybe minus the fact that his hands are sweating intensely), etch it into his brain, and savour the moment.

Only it breaks when Kihyun exclaims an ‘oh!’, and with a quick flick, slips his hand out of Hyunwoo’s grip. (He won’t openly admit to being disappointed, he just won’t.)

Rummaging through his eco bag, he seems to have prepared something, and Hyunwoo tries to steal a peek but fails. Like it’s second nature to him, Kihyun’s fingers find their way back to Hyunwoo’s hand, and with a light tap, gets the man to open his palm to hold him again.

Like a child, Hyunwoo finds delight in the smallest of touches, and he’s somehow grateful for Kihyun’s hand back in his.

“I brought you something. Mostly as a symbol, or something.”

And then he pulls out a bottle of coffee milk. Hyunwoo pauses for a long second before breaking into laughter, his fingers still intertwined with Kihyun’s.

“Really?”

Kihyun grins. “Yeah, really. Maybe coffee milk will be our ‘always’.”

And Hyunwoo knows it’s a joke, but while coffee milk may very well be their ‘always’, he smiles, mostly at the fact that there will always be an ‘always’ for them.

**Author's Note:**

> the point of the fic was the date and not coffee milk but i got carried away yoinks  
> why did i write this fic? Not sure. But i started on it and felt like i needed to finish it anyway. Sorry if the ending sucks, i ran out of steam.  
> it started out cute and then??? i know. i agree, whatever it is that those ????s mean.
> 
> twt: @jookination  
> comments and kudos are appreciated!


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